LANSDALE — One of Lansdale borough’s biggest projects has gotten a $2.5 million boost from Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett.

On Friday Corbett’s office announced the awarding of nearly $125 million in grant funding for economic development projects across the state — with $2.5 million for Lansdale’s Madison Parking Lot redevelopment project on that list.

“This was a joint application of the Parking Authority and BPG Properties, which was assembled with the expert guidance and assistance of (consultants) Delta Development,” said borough Parking Authority chair Dan Dunigan.

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“The Authority and BPG are most appreciative of the efforts of the House Republican caucus and, specifically, our local Representative Bob Godshall” for his help in “waving the Lansdale flag” to secure the funding, Dunigan said.

“When folks are going around the table saying what projects they want to get done and why, to have somebody with his long tenure represent the borough and the surrounding area, really carries a lot of weight,” Dunigan said.

Last year the authority and BPG developed and signed an agreement by which the authority agreed to transfer ownership of the Madison lot to the development company, in exchange for BPG’s building a several-hundred-space parking garage (which would be shared with the authority), apartments, retail buildings and townhouses atop the current parking lot and vacant fields to the northwest.

Godshall said Friday that he felt that “this is a good project, a needed project, and Lansdale is moving up and really doing a lot in terms of rejuvenating the town,” which helped when asking other state lawmakers for the grant award.

“Everybody complains about seniority not necessarily being a good thing, and we ought to have term limits and so forth, but seniority sometimes helps with projects like this: you know where to go and who to go to,” he said.

According to the governor’s budget office, the Redevelopment Assistance Capital program was founded in 1986 to fund projects that generate “substantial increases in employment, tax revenues or other measures of economic activity” in local municipalities. According to RACP program data as of last year, a total of more than $111 million has been awarded since 1986 to projects in Montgomery County, including awards to the Indian Valley YMCA in 2002, the Souderton Boys and Girls Club in 2004, the then-Lansdale Performing Arts Center in 2006, and the PEAK Center in 2009.

Godshall said Friday that he’s working on revising that funding award for $1.5 million to the PEAK Center from 2009 to be directed to the Lansdale Collaborative Project that would combine PEAK, the North Penn YMCA, Manna on Main Street and Advanced Living Communities into one shared facility on East Main Street, and the overall funding he’s helped secure for Lansdale during his time in the House totals in the millions.

“I know this project; I’ve met with Lansdale (officials) and their council. It’s a project that’s well deserved, and I think it’s going to do a lot for Lansdale. In fact, I know it will,” Godshall said.

Funding announced by Corbett’s office Friday will go to a total of 54 projects across the state, but only two in Montgomery County: $2.5 million for development of Lankenau Hospital by Main Line Hospitals and the same amount for Lansdale’s Madison project. Dunigan and Godshall both said Friday that the total requests for RACP funding far exceeded the amount available to allocate, to the tune of $3 to $4 in requests for every dollar awarded, so Dunigan said Godshall deserves “as much credit as can be given” for securing Lansdale’s award.

“Representative Godshall is a dedicated public servant and one who has championed the interests of Lansdale, and the surrounding communities which he represents, for many years and he is to be commended for his service,” Dunigan said.

The impact of Friday’s grant award on the project itself is still unclear, according to Dunigan, but he said the $2.5 million will likely make the finished product “much more attainable” for the development company and could serve as a model for public-private partnerships across the state.

“This has the potential to be a model project for the entire Commonwealth, because of what it entails: its proximity to the train station, it’s almost a truly intermodal structure — the benefits that come from it stretch far beyond the Madison lot,” he said.

BPG Properties and the office of Governor Corbett have not yet responded to requests for comment.

The Parking Authority’s next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 12, at Lansdale Borough Hall, located at 1 Vine St.; Dunigan said Friday that more information on the Madison project could be announced during that meeting.

For more information visit www.Lansdale.org or follow @LansdalePA on Twitter.

Follow staff writer Dan Sokil on Twitter @DanSokil.

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